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Review of Pie by Sarah Weeks

Pie by Sarah Weeks

When Alice’s Aunt Polly, the Pie Queen of Ipswitch, passes away, she takes with her the secret to her world-famous pie-crust recipe. Or does she? In her will, Polly leaves the recipe to her extraordinarily fat, remarkably disagreeable cat, Lardo . . . and then leaves Lardo in the care of Alice.

Suddenly, the whole town is wondering how you leave a recipe to a cat. Everyone wants to be the next big pie-contest winner, and it’s making them pie-crazy. It’s up to Alice and her friend Charlie to put the pieces together and discover the not-so-secret recipe for happiness.

Alice wondered if her mother was aware that she wasn’t the only one in town
who’d come down with a bad case of Blueberry Fever.

Pie is a story about dealing with the passing of a loved one. Alice’s close relationship to her Aunt Polly is well translated to the reader without getting bogged down with emotion, but still deals with the grief that Alice has to face. I appreciated that the message focused on remembering Polly’s legacy and how Alice pushed forward to the next chapter of her own life. It kept the story lighthearted and mostly positive. In addition, there are strong messages of family, friendship, purpose, and believing in yourself that make Piean important read for kids, regardless of whether they’ve lost someone or not.

Polly had a gift for baking pies, and she poured
her heart and soul into every one she made.

My favorite part about Pie, however, were the recipes. I am a kitchen enthusiast, so the familiarity of the kitchen and ingredients was nostalgic. I even learned a few things about traditional American pies along the way. The recipes at the beginning of every chapter include notes left by Polly, which helps the reader feel connected to this wonderful woman.